I guess it depends where you are in your fitness, and what sort of motivation you draw.



If you can self motivate and know what you are doing, nothing will beat a home gym.

If you are new yo lifting, or need some group encouragement to motivate, then CF boxes offer a lot.

After looking at my options I went with a home gym. No ragrets!

"are they worth it?"

Nope, and their asshattery  produce a lot of injuries.

I thought that was the goal of XFit:  injure yourself so you can tell people all about how you injured yourself.

Home gym all the way!  

See if they have a free lesson or week so you can see if you like the environment/coaches. If the people running the place suck, you are more likely to get injured. Good coaching is vital.

If your goal is meeting hot women go to yoga.

My wife and daughter are doing crossfit at the local gym.  I really don't care for most of their WODs, so I don't really see myself joining (I'm a member of their gym, but not crossfit).  If they did more strength based workouts instead of burpees and running I'd be pretty tempted.

The injury thing is highly overblown.  The fact that it's a really supportive environment where people are working out and making gains a lot faster than people working out by themselves is highly underrated, imo.  I've seen some pretty amazing changes in people at the crossfit side, mentally and physically.

Green: not good programming. A good gym should be doing everything for met cons to weightlifting. There are a lot of gyms that program long, monostructural/gymnastic workouts and never get into weightlifting. That's usually either because they lack equipment or the owner/clients prefer long simple workouts. An owner isn't helping or programming the crossfit prescription if they do that. A gym with good programming should have have a good mix of monostructural (running, rowing, etc), gymnastics (push ups, pulls ups, etc), and weightling (snatch, deadlift, squats, etc). Each one should be a focus of a workout throughout the week, with undertones of the others. Most people that bash crossfit programming(Not saying SCW is), don't have the first clue how it's done.

Red: 100% agreed. Injury rates aren't any higher than any other activity or sport, especially in a good gym. There are some gyms that have lot's of injuries...there is one close to me...but that is due to coaches not doing their job, or understanding what a client needs. It's also amazing how many people start with a prior injury, but don't tell the coaches, then blame crossfit.

ETA: OP, there are several great gyms on the front range. PM me your area if you want, and I can make a recommendation/I'll ask the owner of my gym.

If you have the space at home, do a home gym. The ironically CrossFit Journal has some great articles on how to do it.

Then take part of that $120 and take Brazilian Ju Jujitsu.

No........I mean FUCK NO.     And horrible injuries from idiots who don't know any better

Please describe your experience with Crossfit.

I died.

Has its place

Depending on your goals... Can be worth it.


Make sure the coaches are good and well trained.

I belong to a great CF box, it motivates me to go there 5 days a week. We also have Open gym time, a barbell only club and 10 CF classes a day. The programming is pretty good for most but I find myself needing more Olympic Lifting.  We probably have 20 CF boxes within 30 miles, some of them suck, some of them dont.

Your experience may vary but I dont know where you can get coaching 5-7 days a week for 120.00

The majority of our coaches are regional and National CF athletes.

oh boy, here we go. At least its not under GD

I thought you were all about Planet Fitness now

Bunch of CF douchebags... ha! If it was cheaper I would probably give it a try. But most CF gyms cost way too much. I think it's more of social thing though. I thought regular gyms were a rip off. Ya know you could probably just do some push-ups and go for a run outside for free... Maybe buy some weights for the home.

My wife spends $117 a month on crossfit and I would say I've never once hesitated for her to spend that amount. That gets her unlimited classes which also include yoga with an actually fit instructor that works with them personally on form, heart rate monitors that track their progress during cardiovascular heavy classes, a huge open gym area with some of the best free weights and exercise tools available, and a group of people that help motivate her and keep her going.

Well I do need a 30 minute circuit.

 
Those guys are good!  That was hilarious!

It depends on the person.  Where the value is is for people who need coaching.  What's it going to cost to have a personal trainer every time you workout?  A lot of people don't need it.  There's plenty of free CF programming available online.  But 95% of people I see starting CF desperately  needs someone there watching their form, coaching them, etc.  Of course, it's only a good thing if it's a good coach.  My gym has great coaches right now and I wouldn't hesitate to throw any novice in front of them.

Secondly, CF is fun because it's more like a sport.  You compete with others, as well as yourself.  It's always different.  And you build camaraderie with other people going through the same thing.

This is at a novice level.  At a more advanced level, it's not necessarily worth it if you have access to equipment.  Also, at an advanced level, your goal is improving your ability to do CF.  Building your engine.  If your goal is strength, there are better options out there.  But for building a big engine capable of doing well in CF style workouts, obviously you need to do CF style workouts everyday.

For an advanced level programming, check out Ben Bergeron's competitor's training.  It's free and it's really fucking tough.

I'm very happy with mine - the owner does his own programming that really seems to help, and we have a great coach when I go over the lunch hour.

I am not the type of person who can self motivate to do it, so I need the class atmosphere and coaching.

The gym I go to also has punch cards - that really helps control the cost.

Go try it, you will know within a month whether or not it is for you.

I've really enjoyed it.
Lost 30+ lbs and several inches on the waist.
Coaches are key.
Very social atmosphere, friends hold you accountable if your slacking or sandbagging.
Our owners/coaches take feed back regarding the programming so it's reflecting what the regulars are looking for.
Good luck

I've been to a few gyms around the country when I was traveling for work.  Each one is as different as their owners, but in general the attitude is to help you do the best you can.  If you've got a limitation the coaches I've seen were really good to determine a scaled approach based on the limitation.

for example-

I've got an injured wrist that won't allow me to put pressure on it, especially bent back like a push up or burpee.  I did a WOD with my daughter a while back and the coach had me doing wall-ball sit ups as an equivalent.  I've seen some really heavy older women that probably haven't done anything physical in decades.  They started by scaling from box jumps (normally that means jumping onto a box 20" high) by stepping up on a 45lb plate.  Within a few months they are stepping up on an 18" box, and a year later them chubby cows is jumping fences.  It's actually kind of cool to see the progress.

there are obvious limitations on the strength side too.  You're not likely to suddenly go out and do 135lb thrusters, cleans and front squats in a complex, so the easy scale there is to back off the weight to as much as you can do correctly and allow you to get stronger.  Crossfit gets a bunch of shit for this but I think it's the responsibility of the individual to make sure they back off the weight as needed, the coach can't always tell how close to your limit you are and can't be responsible for the crossfitter being a retard.  

In Wisconsin I saw old folks, mid-40 FAT folks (lots of them in WI), young fat folks and young fit kids.  I always see the fit guys too, but you likely won't really be out of place and you'll likely find a very supportive and encouraging environment to better yourself.  But probably not enough strength training, so make sure you do some of that too.  Outside of the class I mean.  My wife and I both agree that the best thing we did was lift for a year before she started crossfit.  My daughter also lifted for nearly a year first and it's really helped her.  The coach is now encouraging people to lift first if possible, but a lot of people can't keep motivated by just lifting solo, which is why crossfit is such a success for so many people.

The gym I go to has three different levels posted for each wod. Rx, gold, and silver. They are more than happy to scale beyond those levels as well. I generally stick to the gold level workouts.

If you want to check out some sample wods and their scaling here is my gyms site.

http://thegymcf.com/blog/

My #1 reason for not joining one full time is the lack of being able to walk into a gym and train 1) when I want 2) how I want 3) what I want w/o being beholden to the trainers/ owners "WOD" and only having an "open" gym when they decide is a deal killer for me. I work a rotation schedule of day's on and off..Mon Tues Wends one week, Tues, Wends, Thurs the next etc..I need a place that I can conform to me.

There is a large crossfit gym that is about 45 min away that we get invited to 2x yr and they have open gym all day, it's just too far.

I was a member at gym in Detroit (proper, right in Corktown). If I wanted to do the WOD, then do it. If I wanted to do basic weights, then do it. If I wanted to beat the shit out of heavy bags with an ax handle, then do it, if I wanted to show up for the classes, then show, if I wanted to do ANYTHING with ANYTHING when I wanted to..then do it. Great place to train for my OCR's and work.

I used to spend hours there a day on my day off, got ripped, strong(er) faster, etc. owner/ workers would leave and I would help when they were gone..loved it there. One of the owners was a fantastic motivator, trainer, etc..Everything from Hellyeah to NWA to Prince would be on the awesome sound system in a gym covered in moto and Detroit graffiti and not a single mirror anywhere.. GoRuck events used to start and end there as the one good owner was friends with a few cadre's..

Then the power, money, notoriety fights and theft within the staff took over..the owner who I respected and like left as it turned into a shit show away from it's roots. Now it's all hipster fluff and weak ass'd shit.

Cost really isn't should't be a factor, when you think about absorbing and going all in..it's worth it. Losing weight, getting fit, looking better, feeling better, having that sphere of positivity and accountability, etc..a good gym with good coaches and fellow people to train with and lift you up is priceless.

Good luck, OP!

I think this post nailed it.  Depends on the particular place, environment and coaches.  I also would never go to a place where you couldn't do your own thing, i.e., open gym.

As for working with older people, my gym has a lot of people in their 40's, 50, and even 60's.  One of the guys in his 50's has made it to the regionals level in the masters 55+ division several times, almost making it to the finals in carson every year.  The others just enjoy being in good all-around shape.  Everything can, and should, be scaled.

Anybody that answers that question with a straight yes or no is ignorant and should not be trusted.
Anyone that hyped up the injury rates is ignorant as well.
Anyone that thinks crossfit is the same as a simple circuit again- ignorant.

There's no easy answer. Depends on goals and the gym you go to. A good coach is always a valuable thing. Discounting that is stupid.

Most of the people that shit on crossfit don't know anything about it. I was also stronger than a lot of these people when I was a crossfitter. Anyone who says everyone should be doing cf no matter what has drunk the koolaide a little too deeply.

Any Crossfit WOD is scale able.
I'm 44, started just under a yr ago and was 250 lbs with bad knees and a back issue.
I talked with the coaches and they worked out alternatives for everything to start, then scaled the weight to make sure I was doing it correctly.Made recommendations and pushed me when I needed it.
Now I'm 215 lbs and am having to buy new clothes. People comment on my weight loss and others comment on my shoulder development.

Coaches are key. Go to Crossfit.com to check if your local gym is affiliated.They don't really give that away.
Our gym is owned by a level 3 and level 4 coaches. They give a damn and are there to help.

Crossfit really seems to polarize people. They either love it or they hate it.
Good luck either way.